


Advanced Picnicking and Analysis of Hollywood Blockbusters

by dearzoemurphy



Series: Queer Studies in an Alternate Timeline [4]
Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Fluff, Mid-Canon, Mid-season 5, Picnics, includes a discussion about the merits of James Cameron's Avatar, lesbian Annie Edison
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:02:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26877106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dearzoemurphy/pseuds/dearzoemurphy
Summary: Annie organizes a picnic with Rachel and the rest of the Save Greendale Committee. Naturally, not everything goes according to plan.Set mid-season 5 after Troy has left.
Relationships: Annie Edison/Rachel (Community)
Series: Queer Studies in an Alternate Timeline [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1896352
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	Advanced Picnicking and Analysis of Hollywood Blockbusters

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea in my head for a while and finally got around to writing it down!! I was excited to see that Annie/Rachel is now officially recognized as a relationship tag, so thank you to everyone who has contributed to this noble cause. without any further ado, I hope you all enjoy!! <3

“Any last words before we wrap this up?” Jeff asked, looking around the study room table.

“Can someone give me a ride home? I may have taken a few…dozen…swigs out of my flask during the staff meeting this afternoon,” Duncan inquired.

Jeff gave an overdramatic sigh. “Sure, I’ve got you. Anything else?”

Annie bit her lip, gripping the sides of her chair to steady herself. “Um, actually…I was wondering if you guys would be free this weekend?”

“For what reason?” Britta asked.

“Rachel and I were planning on having a picnic this Saturday and we would love it if you all could join us,” Annie replied with an unusual formality. Her anxiety tended to manifest itself in some strange ways.

“I can postpone my Ator series rewatch. I’m in,” Abed said.

“What time on Saturday are we talking?” Jeff asked.

“What, like you have any other plans this weekend?” Britta asked snarkily. Jeff only rolled his eyes in her direction.

“Noon. At the park over by Denny's,” Annie answered.

“I’ll see if I can rearrange my schedule,” Jeff said with a playful smile. Britta socked him lightly on the arm.

“I’ll absolutely be there! Would you like us to bring anything? I can make brownies,” Shirley offered.

“That would be wonderful! Rachel is making chicken salad sandwiches and I’m making mac and cheese, you guys can bring whatever else you want,” Annie said, looking around the table.

“Am I invited to this?” Chang asked softly.

“And will there be alcohol?” Duncan added.

“Yes, and only if you provide it!” Annie replied.

Duncan shrugged. “Works for me.”

“Oh, Duncan and Chang are coming? Count me in. I wanna see where this trainwreck goes,” Britta said, her internal monologue accidentally slipping out. After a glare from Jeff, she added, “and spend time with my best friends and your new girlfriend!”

Annie gave a tight lipped smile. “Of course. I’m sure.”

\---

“And you made enough sandwiches for everyone?” Annie asked for the twelfth time that day.

“Yes, babe. And packed enough plates for everyone,” Rachel confirmed, giving her a small smile as she set their large picnic basket down on a table underneath the picnic shelter.

“What about cups? I forgot to check the cups, do we have enough cups?” Annie said, practically diving for the basket to check.

Rachel grabbed her by the arm, chuckling lightly. “Annie. Look at me,” she said, prompting her girlfriend to look her in the eye.

Annie looked up sheepishly from beneath her lashes, letting Rachel pull her closer.

“We have everything we need for this to go smoothly. There is absolutely no pressure on this event. We’re just hanging out with your friends in a park,” she said soothingly, rubbing small circles on the outsides of Annie’s arms.

Annie sighed. “I know. I just…really want this to go well,” she said.

“I know you do. And I will do everything in my power to make sure that it does,” Rachel said, leaning forward to plant a kiss on her girlfriend’s forehead, “Now, I think the first of your friends are here,” she added, pointing over Annie’s shoulder.

Annie turned around and was greeted by the sight of Shirley and her two children, the woman smiling broadly and waving as they approached the couple.

“I didn’t know she was bringing her kids!” Annie hissed, frantically turning back towards Rachel.

“Hey, hey! It’s okay. This is why we packed extras of everything, remember?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t plan on entertaining _kids_! And Duncan’s going to be here drinking and they shouldn’t have to be exposed to that! And-”

“Hi, An-nie! Hi, Rachel!”

Annie turned back around and put on her best over-the-top ‘I’m totally not freaking out right now’ smile. “Hi, Shirley! You brought your kids!”

Rachel cringed outwardly, but Shirley wasn’t phased. “Yes! I have Elijah and Jordan for the weekend. Boys, you remember Annie, right?”

“Hi, Annie,” Elijah said cheerfully.

“Hello, Annie,” Jordan echoed the sentiment a moment later.

“Hi, guys! I…I don’t know if you want to go run around? Or just sit here? Or-”

“Oh, they’d love to run around. We brought a soccer ball just for that purpose,” Shirley assured her.

Annie let out an accident sigh of relief, Rachel patting her on the back. “That’s great. I-”

“I just think that the fact that it’s the highest grossing movie of all time doesn’t mean anything! It has zero cultural significance,” a voice that was unmistakably Britta’s was yelling from the other side of the picnic shelter.

“It had to have some significance! Besides, the use of 3-D was revolutionary,” Jeff retorted as the pair rounded the corner and came into view.

“Why don’t you go play, boys?” Shirley suggested, ushering Elijah, Jordan, and their soccer ball over to the open field at their right.

“Was it, Jeff? Was it?”

“Yes! Industry professionals wouldn’t say it was revolutionary if it wasn’t revolutionary!”

“Can we drop the argument about _Avatar_ just for today? Please?” Annie asked, unable to hide her annoyance once Jeff and Britta joined the rest of the group.

Britta narrowed her eyes. “Fine. I will drop it for the rest of the day if Jeff agrees to do the same.”

“You’re only saying that because you know I’m right,” he said smugly.

“What makes you say that? You’re the one grasping at straws and trying to defend the name ‘unobtanium’. Like, they couldn’t come up with anything more creative?!”

“Like I’ve said before, I-”

“You all aren’t having a pop culture discussion without me, are you?” Abed asked, appearing out of nowhere.

“No, we’re _ending_ a pop culture discussion!” Annie exclaimed, glaring daggers at both Jeff and Britta.

“I mean, I have my own opinions on _Avatar_ that I have yet to contribute…” Rachel murmured, giggling when Annie whipped around to glare at her.

“Who’s talking about _Avatar_?”

The group turned to see Chang casually stringing up a hammock between two nearby trees, Annie wondering where he came from and how he’d snuck up on all of them.

“No one is talking about _Avatar_! We are going to have a pleasant picnic untainted by James Cameron’s mediocre box office cash grab!” Annie exclaimed.

The following silence was broken by a smug Britta saying, “Glad you’re on my side, Annie.”

From there, the group descended into what could only be described as nonsensical bickering.

“No one’s on your side, Britta!” Jeff exclaimed.

“I don’t know, I didn’t think there was anything too special about _Avatar_ either…” Shirley said.

“Exactly! It’s just so bland and uninteresting,” Rachel added.

“Hell yeah, she gets it!” Britta said, raising her hand for a high five. Annie narrowed her eyes at her girlfriend when she moved forward to reciprocate.

“While the film featured many advances in motion capture technology, the story is too formulaic for it to be considered anything other than a visual work of art,” Abed added, Britta nodding in agreement.

“So there _was_ something revolutionary about the graphics! Ha!” Jeff exclaimed, excitedly jumping up and pointing at Britta. She rolled her eyes.

“Hm, I don’t think I said revolutionary…” Abed murmured.

“Jeff, I don’t think anyone’s actually on _your_ side,” Chang said innocently, “I fell asleep during the first ten minutes of the movie.”

“No one is ever on Jeffery’s side,” an unmistakably British voice chimed in, Duncan stumbling up behind the group and gripping onto Jeff’s shoulder to steady himself.

They continued bickering in this fashion, Annie becoming more and more frustrated the longer it went on.

_“This isn’t how this was supposed to go! How have we gone this off the rails before we’ve even sat down?! This is_ exactly _what I didn’t want to happen! They’re going to drive Rachel away, aren’t they? They’re…they’re going to scare her off,”_ Annie thought, quickly spiraling and imagining the worst case scenario.

Rachel looked over to her girlfriend mid-impassioned argument about no one remembering a single character’s name and noticed the look of concern on her face. She quickly turned back to the group and waved to get their attention.

“Hey, guys? Guys!” Rachel yelled over the din, “Can we actually put all of the _Avatar_ stuff away for now?”

They all stopped and stared at her in disbelief, wondering what spurred her sudden change of heart. She darted her gaze subtly over to a now bewildered Annie, seemingly shocked by her girlfriend standing up for her. The group looked at their friend and understood, giving various grunts and mumbles of concession.

“We can get the food out now if you guys would like?” Rachel offered. Britta grumbled something about her blood sugar being low before moving to help Rachel get out the supplies.

Before Rachel could slip away, Annie reached out and grabbed her hand, squeezing it tightly and mouthing a _“thank you”_. Her girlfriend smiled, leaning in to press a quick kiss to her temple.

“I’ll call the boys over,” Shirley said, making her way over to the edge of the field to their right.

Everyone else found a way to make themselves busy, staying completely silent as they did so. It wasn’t long before the food was spread out on the picnic tables, Shirley’s desserts were plated up, and Britta’s case of La Croix was cracked into.

Rachel passed out plates once everyone was seated around the long table underneath the picnic shelter. Aside from murmurs of ‘thanks’ and Elijah and Jordan’s continuing chatter, the group remained largely silent.

_“How can I save this?”_ Annie thought, watching everyone observing their food to avoid looking at one another, _“This is the worst case scenario…Rachel’s going to break up with me and we’re going to kick Jeff out of the group for his wrong opinions about_ Avatar _and-”_

“So…” Britta broke the silence, nervously glancing around the table.

“So?” Jeff grunted.

“I don’t know if we’ve had an argument that intense since our disagreement about BNL,” Britta said.

Jeff, Shirley, Abed, and Annie nodded sagely, remembering the days of yore. Rachel gave Annie a confused look, prompting the brunette to whisper _“I’ll fill you in later.”_

“And once again, Jeff was the one in the wrong,” Shirley grumbled.

“I was not wrong in either case! I-” Jeff started to defend himself, stopping when Annie and Rachel both glared at him.

“Sorry. I’m sorry for continuing the argument when you asked us to stop,” Jeff said, gesturing to Annie.

“I’m sorry too,” Britta added weakly.

“What are we sorry for?” Elijah asked, looking up to his mom.

“Oh, nothing you need to worry about, boys,” Shirley assured him, “but I’m sorry as well.”

“Sorry,” Chang said.

“I’m sorry, too. I should have suggested setting ground rules for our debate,” Abed said, sounding genuinely remorseful.

“I don’t believe I participated much, but I’ll apologize just in case,” Duncan chimed in.

“And I’m sorry for fanning the flames,” Rachel said, leaning her head onto Annie’s shoulder.

“Thanks for the apologies, guys. I’m sorry for freaking out. I guess I was just…really nervous. About today,” Annie said.

“Aw, why, An-nie?” Shirely asked.

“I don’t know! I mean, I wanted things to go well because it was the first time planning an event with all of you and Rachel,” she replied. Her girlfriend lifted her head and smiled sweetly.

“And I know that you all liked her after meeting her. So this time, I was worried that all of our usual… _us-ness_ …might scare her away,” Annie croaked.

“Awwww, babe,” Rachel said, placing her hand on the side of Annie’s face.

“Are you saying that you’re embarrassed of us?” Chang asked.

“No, not at all! I just know that we can be a little bit…intense. And this was the first time that she would be spending a lot of time with the whole group,” Annie said.

Elijah and Jordan finished their sandwiches and immediately sprung up from the table, collecting their soccer ball and returning to the field. Once they were gone, Shirley reached across the table to take Annie’s hand.

“Pardon me if I’m overstepping, but Rachel seems like the kind of girl that can handle our crazy,” she said, flitting her gaze over to the blonde and giving her a broad smile.

Rachel smiled back. “Thank you. I think I am, too,” she said, moving her hand to rest on her girlfriend’s shoulder, “I’m not going anywhere, Annie.”

“Aww, you guys!” Annie squealed, squeezing Shirley’s hand and leaning her head against Rachel’s.

“...does this mean that we can go back to telling Jeff why his _Avata_ r-related opinions are wrong?” Britta asked quietly.

Naturally, this prompted the start of a second round of lively discourse. However, Annie wasn’t upset this time. She just curled into her girlfriend’s side and let a tipsy Duncan lay into Jeff about his awful taste in movies.

\---

“I think, all things considered, that this went pretty well,” Rachel said. The others had packed up and left, leaving her and Annie to clean up the shelter.

“I’m glad you think so. I mean, I think so, too, but I’m really glad that you do,” Annie said, in the middle of picking up the group’s trash.

“Annie?”

“Mhm?”

“Were you really worried that I was going to be scared away?” Rachel asked.

Annie set down her trash bag, and sat down at the picnic table, taking a deep breath. “I mean…kind of? It wouldn’t be the first time that my study group scared away someone’s romantic partner,” she said.

“Really?” Rachel asked incredulously, coming around the table to sit next to her girlfriend.

“Yup. One of my crushes, one of Britta’s boyfriends…who then became _my_ boyfriend, and they actively tried to scare him away, then,” Annie elaborated.

“Damn. Well, how long ago was all of that?”

“Like…four years ago.”

“I don’t want to make assumptions, but I think your friends have changed since then. I don’t feel like they’re trying to scare me away,” Rachel said.

“They aren’t! But like I said earlier, I know our group can be intense. We don’t usually like letting new people in for any reason,” Annie explained, “When I introduced you to them, I was worried that they wouldn’t like you. But once I got confirmation that they did and wanted to spend more time with you…I was worried that you would see what you were getting yourself into and run away screaming.”

Rachel’s face softened. She reached over to put a hand on her girlfriend’s back, rubbing it gently. “Annie, I spent a night helping Abed with a million costume changes so that he could live out the trope of having two dates to a school dance. I knew exactly what I was getting into,” she said, laughing lightly, “For what it’s worth, if the worst thing about your friends is that they sometimes get a little too passionate about mediocre Hollywood blockbusters, I think that’s pretty good,” she paused, “And if that’s all it took to scare the others off? Then maybe those people just didn’t deserve you guys.”

Annie grinned. “That’s good to hear,” she said, leaning in to kiss her girlfriend. Rachel gladly reciprocated, moving to cup Annie’s chin.

“I’m really glad I ran into you in that coat check,” Annie said, leaning against Rachel, who wrapped her arms tightly around her.

“I’m really glad you did, too,” she replied, pressing a kiss to the top of Annie’s head.

“And I’m glad that you share my opinions on _Avatar_. I honestly don’t know what I would do if you didn’t.”

**Author's Note:**

> as always, please leave any thoughts/opinions/etc. down below!! as well as your opinions on Avatar if you've got any. (seriously, it's been what, maybe 8 years since I first saw it? and I'm still not over the ridiculous laziness of naming the rare element 'unobtanium'. I may never recover.)
> 
> I hope you all are doing well and have a good rest of your day/night/whatever it is at your time of reading this! <3


End file.
